Health NGO Brings Hope to Samar Town

Among the Samar towns, the hardest hit by military operations is the municipality of Basey. Its residents found much-needed help and hope when non-government organizations conducted a medical, surgical and dental mission last on May 29-31 in three of its sitios.

BY JOHANN HEIN B. ARPON

Bulatlat

There is no doubt about it: one of the most depressed provinces in the country is the province of Western Samar (575 kms south of Manila). It is one of the six provinces comprising the Eastern Visayas region. Aside from the poverty of its people, who are mostly peasants, the community is also adversely affected by the intensified counter-insurgency campaign, which farmers describe as more like a campaign against civilians in the barrios.   PATIENTS: Basey children and their elders await their turn during the medical mission

Among the towns hardest hit by these military operations is the municipality of Basey, Samar. Three of its interior barangays (villages) were the latest beneficiaries of a medical, surgical and dental mission held last May 29-31 at the Sitio Rawis, Brgy. Guirang, Basey, Samar sponsored by the Community Medicine Development Foundation, Inc. (Commed), in partnership with Leyte Center for Development, Inc. (LCDE) and the local government unit of Basey thru Mayor Vic Labuac.

Those that benefited from the three-day medical mission were Brgys. Guirang, Mabini and Inuntan. These barangays and its sitios (sub-villages) are in very far-flung areas that they can only be accessed through a motorized banca or by simply walking.

As such, Guirang’s Brgy. Capt. Ignacio Guimbaolibot was very thankful that their barangay was among the chosen recipient of the mission. “Dako an impact hini nga aktibidad nga ginhimo ha amon barangay tungod nga usa kami han gipopobrehe nga barangay ngan kulang gud an nasulod nga kanan gobyerno ayuda ha amon ilabi na para ha panlawas nga panginahanglan han akon mga molupyo” (This activity has a big impact on our barangay especially so that we are one of the most depressed barangay and assistance coming from the government is nil), he said.

Data provided by LCDE, the local partner of the medical mission, show there were 1,202 patients who availed of medical services, of which 224 were dental services, 745 were circumcisions, and 14 were surgical cyst removals. Nineteen of the patients were diagnosed with tuberculosis.

“Problematic” government health program

Commed, a Manila-based non-government health developmental organization founded by a group of doctors way back in 1986, brought with them medicines and an 11-person team composed of six doctors, three dentists and two nurses.

Dr. Julie Cagiat, the mission’s team leader and Commed training officer, said the main objective of Commed is to train and deploy doctors to practice community medicine as well as advocacy on the importance of community medicine.

“The beauty of the place is very striking but when we started the medical mission and heard the stories of the peasants, I could really see the poverty being experienced by the populace. Indeed, the population’s knowledge on health is very wanting,” Cagiat said, noting the stark contrast between the scenic environment and people going hungry.

She added that before coming to the area, they were given a census of the barangays and there was no record of malnourishment. But on the mission’s very first day, they diagnosed many malnourished children.

The team members could not also hide their disappointment over the high vulnerability of the population to various diseases. The extreme poverty coupled with “very inadequate” health services complicate otherwise what are otherwise simple and curable diseases.

Unfortunately, health services are not among the priorities of the government, Cagiat said.

Government health programs are often criticized as being inaccessible to the majority of the people, particularly those living in the hinterlands.

Cagiat told Bulatlat about the typhoid epidemic in one of the sitios of Brgy. Mabini, also in Mabey. Many died from the disease not because it is incurable but simply because medicine was not available.

She said poor families in most cases content themselves with traditional medicines in trying to heal a sick family member because they do not have money to spend for the trip to buy medicines, not to mention for the medicines themselves.

“Because of minimal budget, government hospitals will charge the patients what they call the ‘users fee’ to sustain the operation of the hospital,” Cagiat said.

“Meaning, a patient will have to pay a minimum fee for the hospital room and doctor’s fee even if it is a government hospital. Even those with PhilHealth cards would also be spending because its coverage is limited to a specific brand of medicines and if this is not available in the government hospital, one has to buy it outside. And even if it can be refunded, it will only be after three months, which puts at a difficult position those residing in the interior villages. So, even the health programs for the indigents have tedious processes.” 

Empowering the people

Commed tries to help fill the gap in health service with its program of doctor deployment and by giving importance to what it calls “community empowerment.”

Cagiat said the community on their own must be able to have adequate knowledge on simple diseases, its prevention as well as formulating community health planning.

Part of empowering the community is the formation of people’s organization that banners different issues, which may have direct or indirect effect on one’s health.

This, said Cagiat, is being done by members of Commed who when they would go the area would serve as community doctors that has a component of community organizing.

“A Commed doctor in one year could go to three municipalities and integrate in 15 baranggays where he or she can train 70 community health workers, serve more than 1,000 patients and make more than 100 referrals to other specialists. Training health workers is very important because they will serve as health care providers to the community and in that way, the health program is being made sustainable and the people in the community themselves are capable to look after primary health care,” Cagiat added.

She said health professionals “must realize that our services should not be limited to those admitted in the hospitals but more so to those in the communities who, mainly because of poverty, are unable to access hospital services,” Cagiat said. Bulatlat

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